Greenwich Then and Now (6)

We haven’t had one of these for ages, so I thought it was about time we looked at another old postcard. This one was sent exactly 99 years ago today – 26th Jan 1913. I’d tell you the contents, but I’ve deemed them not for general consumption as I don’t condone casual racism even if it was written nearly a century ago. It’s a real shame as it’s all in copperplate writing and nicely presented – but hey that’s how it is. Like turds, you can’t polish prejudice.

But hey – to the front, which I don’t think is offensive to anyone. It’s taken from the top of Crooms Hill and is a general shot down towards what is, nowadays, Our Lady Star of the Sea but, if the caption is to be believed was just ‘Lady Star of the Sea’ then.

And actually, apart from a bit of building, the view hasn’t changed that much. I think I may have got the point a little wrong when I took this (why didn’t I just take the postcard with me?) and taken it a little too high up the hill, choosing the wrong building on the right to line it up with. It all looks a bit far away, now I put them together.

Ah well, No one’s perfect…

the attachments to this post:

Our lady Star of the sea 2012

Postcard Lady Star of the Sea low

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 8:01 am and is filed under Greenwich then and now, Places of Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

wot, toffs in the Edwardian period were racist? You must have it wrong, Phant – you obviously haven’t seen Downton Abbey: back then the senior classes looked out for everyone, imbued with the sense of self-sacrifice; the servants were conscious of the superiority of their masters and loved them dearly.

Phantom – as a wraith-like long-term inhabitant – you probably know the answer to this but Crooms Hill is supposed to be the oldest street name in London – going back at least a century before Alfege got lopped by wandering Scandiwegians. The splendid if slightly creepy house just below Our Lady Star of the Parking Ticket is called Heathgate House and it was built in 1635. So does that mean in Pepys times there was a gate there marking the end of civilisation and the start of the wild heath? Was Our Lady – and for that matter the Convent, the Whaler’s House, Hillside House etc built on stolen common land?